Winter Fitness - Keeping Up The Pace

Days are getting shorter, and night is falling soon after I get home from work each day. There's a crispness in the air, and the weather forecast is calling for the first snow of the year within a couple of weeks.

In past years, all this would have meant to me was more reasons to stay in and play games, but with my running this year and a new focus on staying fit, the looming threat of winter forces an adjustment in my planning. Some of my coworkers are hardcore, all-season runners. They have headlamps for night runs, face masks for extreme cold, and all sorts of additional gear. Me, not so much.

Yeah, this is so not me.

I do want to keep in shape though. Managing to run a 5k in 30:49 was a big step for me, and I don't want to loose the gains I've made this year. So for winter, I'm trying something new: swimming!

My city just opened up a new, public, indoor swim center, and I've now gone a couple of times to see how this is going to go.

I'm glad I started running first. Trying to grind through just 10 laps has been tough, and if I didn't remember how tough the first couple of weeks of Couch to 5k training were, I might have quit already.

I'm not quitting. Next year's goal is to run a 10k, and also shave six minutes off my 5k time. Gotta keep the cardio up for that. This week, ten laps (50m per lap) with sixty second rests between lap. I'll slowly reduce the pauses, until I'm able to do 500m non-stop, then continue to work up my distance. By next spring, I hope to be able to hit the running trails again with a much improved pace.